IM ALIVE! :D
I don't really remember the last time I updated… But I do know that I began this sometime after Christmas so our story here is almost a year old! Wow… and only seven chapters… I've FAILED YOU! Sorry…
I'm hoping to get some more chapters typed up… but I won't post them all at once… YOU GUYS DO NEED A REASON TO REVIEW, AFTER ALL!
So, Broconi and I have been talking quite a lot, and I am very pleased to say that I LOVE THE IDEA THAT WE HAVE COME UP WITH! YAY!
It will be called What they Learned I am pretty sure. I want to finish this, or at least get up a few good chapters so you all like me again!
So, if you like Harry Potter/Danny Phantom crossovers, look for What they Learned!
I just thought you would be curious about Broconi's choice for the challenge reward… Stop giving me that look… I KNOW you want to just ignore me and read the chapter already but—… Fine! Just read the chapter… You can learn more about the crossover when it is posted! :D
ON WITH DE STORY!
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Danny Phantom! WHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYY!?
Unfortunately, his need for sleep and his happiness that Cujo was around made him forget his feeling of danger. And unfortunately, this forgetfulness made the entire group vulnerable to attack…
Huh. Everything was finally looking up for Danny. That alone is a surprise. He got a good grade on his test, Dash was his friend, everyone knew he was Danny Phantom (and thought he was awesome for it!), all the girls loved him, Sam was his girl friend, Sam and Danny were about to kiss—
WAIT WHAT!?
Danny woke from his dream immediately… Though his dream wasn't… bad… but it definitely shocked him…
Wait, why was the sky green?
Danny jumped up from the ground he had been sleeping on to study the swirling green and purple doors of none other than… The Ghost Zone. Not only was he in the Ghost Zone, but he was also in a lot of pain, and just barely refrained himself from screaming from his sudden movement. He looked down at himself to see a rapidly healing gash on his chest. Almost absently, he raised a hand to the side of his face and felt a practically healed gash. Thank god for ghostly healing abilities.
It all finally came back to Danny in that moment: the field trip, the ghosts, Skulker's missiles, Cujo, the sense of dread…
Where was Cujo? Danny looked around only to find a sight that he definitely recognized, but hoped to never see again. This sight made him temporarily forget about Cujo, yet gave him much more to worry about. His family and friends were all there, as well as his teacher and classmates. Only, they had metal devices on their heads. The strange headwear had a blue electric current flowing freely from one side of the helmet to the other. They were all sleeping as if they suddenly were too tired to stand and just collapsed to the floor.
"Nocturne," Danny muttered, wincing in pain as he turned to look for the ghost and aggravated his injuries.
"I'm flattered that you remember me, Ghost Boy," Nocturne said without any warning. "Of course, the first time around I was rather insulted that you had no memory of me when I visited your home in the real world."
"You're not one to joke, Nocturne. Why the sudden personality change? If your trying to change your ways, it isn't really working. You seem to be falling back into old habits," Danny replied sarcastically, pointing to the metallic helmets on the class's heads.
Nocturne gave Danny a devious smile and began to talk again in his creepy, haunting voice, "I've run out of energy now that I can't harvest human dreams."
"You mean steal them."
"Stealing is such an ugly word, I prefer the term harvest for energy."
"Steal."
"Harvest."
"Steal!"
"Enough!"
"I beat you before, I can do it again!" Danny exclaimed, glancing down at his slumbering classmates. Everyone was sound asleep… Good, he had an advantage…
"Really? This when I say: DREAM ON!" Nocturne yelled.
In that instant, Danny morphed into his ghost form while exclaiming, "Goin' Ghost!" and dodging the rather feeble wave of blue ecto-energy that Nocturne sent his way.
"You've lost some power. That's good news for me!" Danny reacted to Nocturne's attempt.
Danny fired a well timed ecto-blast at the ghost of night. The blast hit Nocturne right in the chest, sending him back a few feet. Danny narrowed his glowing green eyes at the seven foot tall ghost. Nocturne regained his pose and powered up a blue ball of energy, but Danny didn't give him the chance to fire. Nocturne found a smaller blast of green ecto-energy hurtling towards him, distracting him just enough to release the building up energy that dissipated into the ghostly atmosphere. Nocturne glared at his rival, only to see his chance to strike.
Danny had seized Nocturne's distraction to close his eyes for a split second, focusing on his ice core. He snapped his now bright blue glowing eyes open and was about to fire an ice beam when he noticed that Nocturne wasn't there. The teen ghost whipped around only to make his chest protest in pain. He winced, loosing some of his concentration. Nocturne chose that moment to strike. A carefully built up ecto-blast aimed directly at the side of Danny's head should be enough to render his opponent helpless for the time that he needed to win. Nocturne fired the built up energy and effectively knocked an unsuspecting Danny onto the edge of the Ghost Zone's natural path. Nocturne floated towards him, slight green flames beginning to form around his midnight form. The evil ghost smiled evilly at the very disoriented teen in front of him.
The ghost of sleep whispered to Danny, "This seams familiar… Don't you think? I do believe I know just what to say to you. Time's up, Danny Phantom. I promise your sleep will be much deeper this time; and by deeper, I mean permanent!"
Danny finally was able to see through the pain. He looked up at the dark shadow above him and yelped in surprise at the pure evil on the ghost's face. He struggled to get up, but his injuries were worse than he thought. Leave it to Skulker to invent a missile that injures him enough that it hurts even after the gashes have practically healed. In that very moment, he reverted back to his human form.
Nocturne then raised his hand and stared at it for a moment. Danny stared up at Nocturne's face in confusion. The evil ghost's face slowly turned from an evil smile to a confused frown and then into a look of pure rage mixed with quite a lot of annoyance. All the while Danny just stared at him confusedly, wondering why Nocturne hadn't either made him fall asleep or ended him right there with a powerful ecto-blast. Then again, he doubted if he would allow Nocturne to kill him. He'd likely come up with a last minute plan or just plain be too stubborn to leave the world of the living… or half living… or whatever!
"NO!" Nocturne yelled in frustration. "…But I suppose that's what I get from only sending a few people to sleep… Plus it was mainly just boredom…"
Danny finally figured it out, Nocturne ran out of power! Wait, what was that about boredom?
"You did this because you were bored? That is not something you would do!"
"Loosing my power because you sent me back in here wasn't enough of a reason to attack you? Boredom is just an extra reason! Besides, you'd be acting differently if you weren't able to get any energy!" Nocturne countered with a glare.
"Are you actually trying to change your ways?" Danny asked, bringing up the beginning of the conversation.
Nocturne smacked face palmed. He actually face palmed. Danny was more scared of him now because of his drastic change than he had been when Nocturne had put his whole town to sleep. Danny quickly recovered, however.
"You are not getting anywhere close to your goal, you know," Danny stated sarcastically while getting up.
Nocturne merely glared at him again.
"Sleepwalkers, form!" Nocturne suddenly ordered.
Danny, who was now on his feet again, raised his arms in a defensive position… However, the only thing he had to defend himself was a very alone and rather powerless Nocturne.
Nocturne glared at the air around him as if it was at fault. Nocturne did seem to run out of dream energy quickly, and this seemed to be the reason why the sleepwalkers fought for Nocturne. Too bad he needed dream energy to summon the minions.
Nocturne growled softly and gave Danny his most hateful glare yet. However, suddenly a mysterious smile formed on his face.
"Ah, Ghost Boy, you have quite the job ahead of you…"
"What are you talking about Nocturne?" Danny asked irritably.
"Only that your friends are still asleep… and YOU have to wake them."
Danny glanced at his group and growled hatefully. He had a lot of work to do, he realized.
"However, if you wake up those who are unaware of your secret, they will witness you phasing into others' minds to awaken them."
"What's your point?" Danny snapped.
Well, we can't have your secret getting out just yet, oh no, no, definitely not…" Nocturne muttered mysteriously. "Did you know that the ghosts know you are here? They know you won't turn into your ghost form with your classmates nearby as witnesses. For this reason, they are letting ghosts attack you one by one until you reveal your secret. The ghost that makes you have to change might actually get a reward for revealing your secret, but it is undecided. Rewards don't matter, however. You should just watch your back, Ghost Boy. Everyone is hearing about this. Therefore, I would rather watch you suffer being unable to easily defend yourself and your group against so many who want revenge. It is quite entertaining to see you struggle to keep what can't stay a secret as a secret. So who am I to ruin the torment and make you able to defend yourself by revealing your secret? Then you wouldn't be afraid to use your ghost half. I won't make this any easier, Ghost Boy. I'll just make it so that when the helmets are removed, the victims will stay asleep until the last helmet is broken, and even then give you enough time to change back. Yet I also don't have enough power to make that work for all of the helmets, nor do I want to keep you here when you have so much to… let's just say 'look forward to.'"
Nocturne raised his hand and waved it across the air in front of him. The helmets of most of his class mates broke off, yet they stayed sleeping.
"There. You still have quite a lot of work, but you'll still move on to your next challenge soon enough.
With that, Nocturne laughed evilly and faded away.
"That still seems so unlike him…" Danny muttered, turning to his task.
Don't worry. I'm working on posting the next chapter right now. This needs long AND short chapters, you know. The next one will be Danny entering everyone's dreams!
:D